This is a really entertaining slice of history. This road trip was completed in 1903, a time with almost no paved roads much less highways, and no actual maps for traveling across the United States. Travel across the country was done by train if at all. Cars were novelties owned only by the rich,  and were horrendously unreliable.  Several automobile trips across the US had previously been attempted, but had failed miserably, despite being backed by factory sponsorships supporting professional drivers and mechanics.

Horatio Jackson was a retired medical professional with some wealth to his name, but no experience with cars. He started his trip as the result of a bar bet with some wealthy elites, betting against the common wisdom that cars were not the way of the future, and that no car could drive across the United States. Horatio had no professional sponsor, and did no prior planning. He left four days after making the bet. That took a lot of guts at the time.

Despite the endless frustrating setbacks, this is a really fun documentary to watch, and really illustrates how fast technology can transform what was once considered impossible to a common occurrence in a really short time.

So, every so often, Congress gets this ridiculous idea that they need to exert some control over the internet. “Its for the children,”  or whatever. This round is another attempt by the MPAA to stop online piracy. While I’m sure that idea is good, the proposed “solutions” are far worse than the problem. Basically, my interpretation of the events is that the entertainment industry has an outdated business model, and rather than embrace new opportunities, they want to use the force of law and all that entails to enforce their existing methods of making money. If they really wanted to stop piracy, they would embrace online streaming rather than fight it. But they don’t. They’d rather send men with guns, like the thugs they are.

Anyway, I signed the petition voicing my opposition to censoring the web: https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/

Fark.com has some relevant links if you want to know more about the awful legislation our elected leaders are proposing (The links below are quoted directly from Fark.com, please don’t sue me or shut my blog down):

“PIPA In A Nutshell:

First, we’ve had remarkably warm weather the last couple of days, so we dug the bikes out of hibernation this weekend and went for a little ride:

I say “little” ride, because we stuck pretty close to home. While the weather was warm and sunny in the middle of the day, it was pretty chilly to ride a motorcycle in the morning and at elevation. So we didn’t leave the house until 10:30 am, wore the heated gear as needed in the mountains, and were thoroughly comfortable and happy all day long.

The downside of riding in January is that a lot of the best roads are rendered a bit less fun due to being covered in salt and grime. The slippery surface makes for more cautious riding, but it was still fun to be out. We rode around Philpott lake area a bit, and made our way up to the Blue Ridge Parkway. We started down Squirrel Spur Rd (normally a favorite), and decided to ride back up to the parkway and take 58 down instead before heading home.

I think we did a total of about 160 mi. We were only out for a few hours, and we were home before dark. It’ll do for now, and we sure weren’t the only ones with that idea. The bikes were out all over the place yesterday, as it was probably the only chance for decent riding weather a for a little while.

Ok, back in time a bit to Christmas: We made our usual drive to FL in about 11 hours on Thursday, which is pretty good time. Kevin’s brother made the same drive the next day, and the difference in traffic was distinct: it took him 13.5 hours. Yuck.

I love that Christmas with my husband’s family is a big deal, in more ways than one. His mom’s side of the family is very large, and they almost all get together in one place for the holidays. They’ve been doing it so long, they make hosting 50+ people look easy. Recently, Kevin’s parents decided they no longer used their mostly enclosed pool, and so they filled it in and converted the space to make a giant room that can be used for large gatherings. Just look at what they had set up for Christmas dinner, isn’t it fantastic? It worked perfectly; its like having a bistro at your house:)

Christmas day was extra fun with Kevin’s nephew. Little kids really appreciate Christmas. I love the pic below, wrapping paper everywhere, and no boy is ever too old to play with the toys:)

In sum, 2011 was a great year for us. Some of the highlights can be found in this blog, but the short version is that life is good. We have a lot to be thankful for, and this next year holds a lot of potential for us. We are both really looking forward to 2012. (Mayan apocalypse excluded, of course:)

So, the three of us flew down one afternoon. Kevin and I woke up to this view from the room at the resort:

For most of the trip, the weather was a mixed bag. It was never bad, and only rained overnight. But it wasn’t always sunny either, and temps in the mid-70s meant it wasn’t as tempting to play in the water as much as I wished. About 75% of the time, the ocean looked like the photo below, and the wind was fairly strong. This kept the resort from allowing any of the water activities: no swimming, nor snorkling, no kayaking, no sailing or motorized water-sports.  Oh well, there goes some things off my list.

So we decided to rent bikes and ride around the enormous resort grounds. This particular resort has roughly 400 acres, and there is a lot to see and do, which is great. We spent the first morning lazily exploring, and stopped long enough to play a game of chess on the giant chess board with an ocean view.

Since both Kevin and I had to think for a minute to even remember the rules of chess, it wasn’t exactly a master level game. For the record, slop counts, and I won:)

We spent quite a bit of time on the back porch of the room “brainstorming” our next activity and just hanging out. I’m happy to report Kevin had no problem taking advantage of the down time.

The resort was a great help in assisting in their guests relaxation by cleverly placing a bar 150 ft down the beach from our room.

The next day, we left the resort and headed over the the power plant for a few minutes so that I would have a chance to see it while I was there, and for Kevin and Carter to say hello. Quite a bit of work had already been completed, and it was reassuring to see that the project was in competent hands. The plants are well-run, and I doubt Kevin and Carter will have any trouble completing installation and commissioning.

We then headed over the to obligatory tourist hot-spot, Dunn’s River Falls. If it had been any cooler, climbing the falls would not have been nearly as fun. As it was, we almost had the place to ourselves, and had a pretty good time hiking up the river in such a beautiful setting.

Back at the resort, we did some more exploring. In the photo below, Carter is standing next to a mostly restored tribute to refugees from Cuba. 15 people traveled in this boat over open ocean in 1996 to land right here at the resort.

I also used this afternoon to go swimming with the dolphins. I couldn’t convince anyone to go with me, but I had to take advantage of the chance to play with these intelligent animals. Its not like I can just swim with the dolphins whenever I want. Its a lot of fun, but I’m also a little uneasy about keeping dolphins in captivity. Sometimes, the way the animals are acquired and treated is unethical, and I don’t want to provide my support for those practices. These dolphins seemed to be having a great time and well taken care of, but I wish a had done some research beforehand.

The last morning we were there, the sun came out in earnest, and we took some time in the morning to play on some kayaks in the ocean. I’m not sure if we have any pictures though, as Kevin still has my camera (he kept it for work, and since the internet connection at his hotel isn’t the best, I doubt I’ll get any more pics until he gets back.) So, I may add more pics to this post later. Otherwise, it was a fun trip!

I wish everyone’s Thanksgiving was as delicious as mine, and that everyone has as much to be thankful for. Except for the driving part. We decided to drive all the way to NC from Syracuse on Sunday, rather than take the time to split up the trip.  I’m pretty sure the entire country was on I-81 in Virginia. At least we knew that the Sunday after Thanksgiving is the most traveled day of the year, so we were resigned to  moving along in first gear on the interstate. Still, 13.5 hours on the road is a long day. Maybe its telling that I only took a few pictures this trip, and most of them looked like this:

Once again, the rock climbers were out in force. I think this is a really popular spot. This time, I snapped some pics:

Pics from the top:

Poor Cody the Bear is pretty tuckered out tonight.  He’s only about 5 years old, but seven miles with that much “up” is a lot for him now. He’s still enthusiastic, but his hips just don’t cooperate anymore. He’ll be stiff and sore for couple of days after this, even with his pain meds. I just hope we can keep bringing him for awhile yet, he loves hiking more than we do.

Ken Jennings as the 99%

This is more entertaining and about as coherent as the real thing.